The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LXXI, Part 1-2, 1983 - Khamkoo

144 Richard P. Lando
with nearby fields feuding over personal water theft. All of the irrigation systems .in
the area have changed to concrete dams without the problems reported by Potter (1976:
101). The irrigation system upstream of Sugar Cane Dam on the Thang River voluntarily
built a bypass gate into their dam to let more water down to Sugar Cane Dam i~
drought years, . In 1979 the irrigation committee of Sugar Cane Dam went to confer
with that of the upstream system concerning the serious drought. The irrigation
headman at that time said that there was hardly enough water for their fields and it
·would have been pointless to insist on letting more water thrQugh the bypass gate of
the dam down to Sugar Cane Dam. This consensus was reached without the intervention
of the kamnan or ~ther government officials. Also, when the construction of
• concrete dams was proposed to the water users of both Sugar Cane Dam and the
Khampong irrigation system they readily agreed and contributed money and labor to
the project. Moerman (1968 : "55) reported the people in his village could not agree on
imposing a levy to. gather money for a concrete dam proposed by the government,
while cooperation for constructing the wooden dam was difficult to maintain. The
social institutions necessary for the maintenance of a traditional irrigation system remain
strong in the Phrae region, despite changes ~n both systems.
The practical value of some of the spiritual injunctions is recognized by the
people and used for pragmatic ends. One of the most often mentioned laws concerning
the spirits is the ban on cutting down trees. near the offering houses of the lordly
spirits, and near irrigation tanks which have their own complement of resident spirits.
It was necessary to ask the permission of Lord of 100,000 Elephants during his ceremony
before people would venture to trim branches from trees around his offering house that·
threatened to fall and destroy the roof. In the area of the irrigation systems under
discussion the. only remaining stands of large trees are in the riverbottom, near the
lateral canals, and around the spirits' offering houses, irrigation tanks, and village
cremation grounds. One elder commented that if it hadn't been for the spirits every.
large tree in the area would liave been cut for timber or to fuel the curing ovens of the
local tobacco curing plant years ago.
One direct way in which the spirit offerings are used to promote cpoperation.
in irrigation was shown in the dam spirits offering of 1981. There is a large spring-fed
tank'irrigation system in Village G near the head of Sugar Cane Dam's canal system.
Most of the fields in Village G are too high to receive water from Sugar Cane Dam and
those that are irrigated by it can use water from this tank system also. During the
ceremony in honor of the dam spirits of Sugar Cane Dam in 1981 some of the chickens,
rice, and whiskey offered t? the lordly spirits and the d~m spirits were set aside after
the offering. The reserved offerings were taken to the tank irrigation system where the